


some truths were sewn into our dna

by JaeRianL



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, BAMF Leo Fitz, Developing Relationship, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Red String of Fate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26990470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaeRianL/pseuds/JaeRianL
Summary: The threads have ruled his life, dictated every friendship and relationship Fitz has ever had. It's about time that he gets to reap the benefits of them.
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Lance Hunter/Bobbi Morse/Jemma Simmons
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	some truths were sewn into our dna

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all!
> 
> Just a brief trigger warning for canonical violence, referenced child abuse, the f word (used once), and cherry picked mythology that some readers may find disturbing (yes I do think I'm hilarious) so if this may trigger/offend you, then be careful reading this fic!

The first time Leo had realised that something wasn’t completely normal with him, it was the day he saw the strings coming from his mother and father’s wrists, the two red fibers pulled in opposite directions. He had only been five, but Alistair Fitz didn’t take too kindly to his son “talking like his nutty grandmother”, and had made sure that Leo would never bring it up again.

Of course, the reference to his grandmother, who he had only met a handful of times, had generated high levels of curiosity within him, leaving Leo with more questions than answers. So, when his dad left for a week-long business trip, Leo had begged his mother to take him to his nan’s, and after a few days of pestering, she finally agreed. The drive to the hospital which his nan stayed in was terrifying, exacerbated by the dark and gloomy stretch of road leading up to it. But Leo had put on a brave face, and if he clung to his mother’s hand tighter than normal, then that was between the two of them alone.

He waits as his mum signs them in, swinging his legs back and forth on the chair she had placed him on. After what feels like forever, but really was only five minutes, one of the nurses escorts Leo and his mum to his nan’s room, the two women discussing his nan’s condition using words that they thought he couldn’t understand. Eventually they reach the old woman’s room, and they follow the nurse in, Leo perking up at the sight of his grandmother in her comfy chair. 

Soon enough, the nurse leaves and Leo sprints over to the old woman, whose eyes light up at the sight of her only grandson. As he babbles on about the facts he’d learnt whilst reading yesterday, his mum takes the chance to follow the nurse out and have an “adult discussion” as if his nan wasn’t even older than them.

“Now then my wee Lion, I take it you’re here because of t’ strings?” She asks, smiling at him as he gapes at the older woman.

“How did you know Nan? Can you see them too? Because when I told Father I saw them, he told me I was crazy.”

“Yes Leo, I see them too. But you mustn' tell anyone you’re seeing them, not even your mam and da, because the world doesnae understand who we are or why we have been blessed t’ see these things.”

“Why do we see them Nan?”

The old woman perches him on her knee as she explains the story of how Eros sought out to help people find their true loves by following their red string. With a single touch, these gifted individuals could find the soulmates, and set them up for a long and happy life together. 

However, as with everything in life, this didn’t come without consequences, and those gifted few were hunted down and killed to stop people from finding their other halves, causing them to spread far and wide across the globe. She explains how these chosen few, ones that are pure of heart and strong willed, inherit abilities beyond those of humans, and that they will one day return to Mount Olympus to reunite with their family’s souls once more.

Just as his nan finishes her explanation, Leo’s mother rushes back in, looking extremely stressed out as she searches for Leo. Heaving out a sigh of relief, she insists that they go home right now, that his father is coming home early and that he can never know about this visit. Hugging his nan goodbye, he whispers a promise into her ear before taking his mum’s hand and letting her lead him out to their car. As they drive through the Scottish countryside, all Leo can think is that he needs to help people with his gift.

\-----

Turns out, his grandmother, God rest her soul, had somewhat over exaggerated the beauty of the gift they’d shared. Age eighteen, and having become accustomed to the strings after thirteen long years of seeing them, Leo has completely given up on ever being able to find love. He knows that it’s technically possible, his nan had after all, but realistically, he knows the guilt of relationships that could have been will weigh much too heavily on his soul. 

And, as it turns out, being in relationships with people who you know have soulmates out there that aren’t you, with constant visual reminders of that, never usually ends all that well. He is by no means a blushing virgin, nor is he completely clueless when it comes to love, but there is only so long he can ignore the strings that seem to glow brighter each day he spends with his partners.

But it’s fine, because he has Jemma in his life, and that, that is enough for him. For two years they’ve been inseparable, the ultimate dream team both at the Academy and at SciOps. He may have developed feelings for her in this time, who wouldn’t when she is the literal embodiment of the sun, filled with so much kindness and intelligence that frankly, it is overwhelming at times. In the end though, it would be okay, because he knows that she will one day find her soulmates - a Lance Hunter and a Barbara Morse - and he could see that they would all live together, happy and well. 

At times though, Leo really wishes he could skew the timeline of their relationship, ignore the fates harping on in the back of his mind that constantly frown upon these thoughts, but seeing as this Lance and Barbara currently hate one another and refuse to stay in the same country as each other, he figures it probably isn’t one of his brightest ideas. So instead, he tries not to cringe too hard when he sees Jemma go out on dates with scientists, specialists, and hackers alike - and he most certainly does not almost ask her out, no way, not a chance. 

This goes on for a number of years, with Fitz having accepted his role as the bumbling best friend the moment Simmons reacted so harshly to the notion of the pair being a couple whilst on a night out in the Boiler Room that even Milton,  _ Milton _ , had shown him a shred of decency. And then Jemma drags him out into the field, onto the legendary Phil Coulson’s team, and he nearly has a nervous breakdown there and then. Being in a lab with her at SciOps is fine, because it isn’t their lab, it isn’t their space alone, and frankly there are more than enough people for him to set up, but on a plane? With tiny enclosed quarters? This is going to be a disaster.

And hey, what do you know, it is a complete disaster. Due to his watered down, godly nature, Leo had forced himself to fail his field assessment, despite the fact he’d been handling guns since he was seven (one of his father’s attempts to “stop him from being a fag”) and could take down the likes of Black Widow and Hawkeye if he put his mind to it. However, a skinny, defenceless scientist is a lot less suspicious than a scientist who could fight like a killing machine if needed, despite never being officially trained in any way, shape, or form.

So he allows himself to get roughed up by the corrupt Peruvian police officers, allows himself to get pushed about by Russian mobsters - although he still insists that Olga is a very lovely woman, and he couldn’t wait for her to meet her soulmate - and even lets himself get knocked out by Seth and the pressure gun. But then Hydra emerges from the shadows, and Ward, a man he’d considered to be like a brother, turns his back on them all, for the disgusting vile thing that somehow qualifies to be human known as John Garrett, and Fitz feels sick. He pleads with Ward as he and Simmons are locked in the medical pod, begs him to be a good person, even starts wittering on about the woman who he knows is Grant’s soulmate, but it doesn’t matter. 

They get dropped in the Pacific Ocean, and Leo’s arm shatters as he protects Jemma from the rough landing. He forces her to take the breath of oxygen and insists she finds Bobbi and Lance, his dying wish as he stares at his sunshine for a final time, before slamming down on the button and finally losing consciousness. 

The nine days he spends in a coma are odd to say the least. Whilst Leo can firmly say he never sees the bright white light all the movies talk about, it isn’t exactly a normal experience. He listens as Jemma sobs at his bedside, demanding he wake up so he can explain what the hell he meant by telling her those people’s names, he feels Skye cling tightly to his hand, squeezing it as she insists that if he dies she will kill him, and at one point even sees May and Coulson sat on either side of him, Coulson talking about how terrible he feels that this happened. But he can’t seem to wake himself up, in fact it isn’t until he sees his grandmother sat in the chair beside him that he even manages to fathom what is going on.

“Well Lion, I must say, you dinnae do things half-arsed do ya?”

“Nan? But? How? You’re dead!”

“Enough of the tone laddie, you may no’ be a wee bairn bu’ tha’ dinnae mean I’ll listen t’ tha’.”

Apologising to the older woman, he listens as she explains what had happened at the bottom of the ocean, and how she had cursed up a storm in Olympus when they tried to keep her from seeing him. He listens as she talks to him in the ever so soothing sounds of Greek, until she stops abruptly, and Leo nearly sobs as he sees her slowly fade beside him. One last time, he hears her whisper that promise he’d made to her all those years ago, and he is pulled into the land of the living.

Choking on the breathing tube, he forces himself to breathe gently as he pats the wall behind him to find the call button. Once he finds the button, he looks down to see Jemma sitting in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, slumped against his legs fast asleep. When the nurse arrives, he motions for her to stay silent, his hands shaking as he runs them through Jemma’s hair, not unlike he’d done when she’d had nightmares after the Chitauri virus. He gags as the tube comes out, but thankfully he manages to stay quiet enough that Jemma doesn’t wake up. 

If there’s one overarching thing he’s learnt about Jemma in their decade of friendship, it’s that she would move heaven and earth for those she cared about, even if it means hurting herself in the meantime. So he lets her sleep, whispering his responses to the nurse, forcing himself to ignore the god awful stammer he seems to have obtained, instead choosing to watch over Jemma. 

Staying awake is certainly difficult, and he very nearly drifts off when Skye bounds into the room, and practically screams out his name in delight. This jolts Jemma awake, the young Brit looking absolutely exhausted as she scans the room, trying to find out what’s wrong. When her eyes land on Fitz, just awake enough to smile sweetly at her, she flings herself onto his bed, ignoring all of the wires in favour of clinging tightly to him. Chuckling wetly, he whispers out a “Hi Jem.” before falling back asleep, reaching his free hand out in Skye’s direction and rubbing his thumb against the back of it when she laces them together.

Coming to a second time is much easier than the first, he’s less disoriented, less exhausted too, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t nearly shit the bed when May makes herself known. She barely reacts, a slight quirk of her eyebrow letting him know she definitely saw that reaction, before settling down beside his bed, Jemma now nowhere to be found.

“Simmons is okay, Skye took her back to her room not long after you fell asleep.”

“H-h-how is everyone? All okay?” He asks, scowling at his less coherent speech.

“We’re all fine Fitz, you really have gotten into the habit of saving us all recently. Thank you for what you did, it’s never easy but it will get better.”

“Can’t have our um… uh…” he weakly snaps his fingers together, trying to find the missing word, “t-t-team mum dy, dying on us.”

“What’s wrong with me?”

“The doctors said that you would have brain trauma due to oxygen starvation, from what you’ve shown so far most likely coordination issues and aphasia.”

He nods as he takes in the information, it’s not surprising but he supposes that it’s better than death, so he doesn’t harbour too much resentment to the injury. Instead, he sits in a comfortable silence with May, feeling relief at not having to find words that were fleeting at best. Allowing himself to get comfortable in the bed, Fitz lets himself fall asleep, muttering at May in stilted Greek, although the only words the older agent can pick out are her name and Coulson’s.

\-----

It was four months after Fitz had woken up from the coma when Jemma told him she was leaving. He’d been doing fairly well in his recovery, his coordination still wasn’t brilliant, but he struggled with speaking less and less each day, so it was no surprise really. For weeks, the fates had gotten louder and louder in the back of his mind, almost singing with a joy that he only ever heard when people got to meet their soulmates for the first time. It is for this reason, and this reason alone, that he doesn’t beg her to stay with him like he so dreams of doing, instead wishing her luck with her mission.

Not that she tells him it’s a mission, mind you, but he’s seen how she meets her soulmates, and seeing as she is supposed to meet Bobbi Morse when undercover at Hydra, he assumes that this is now the time. So he waves her goodbye and instead turns his attention to matchmaking, the fact that May and Coulson are literal soulmates and yet do nothing about it infuriates him to no end. 

His days often pass in the same way, he spends the majority of his day either in the lab or in the garage, working on improving his dexterity and mobility, is inevitably dragged away for a team dinner by Skye or Trip, and then will spend the evening trying to get Skye to help him with his mission. He knows that the older agents suspect something, but seeing as he can evade questioning with the best of them, they end up giving up soon enough. 

Then the newbies arrive, Mack joins him in the garage, although apparently he enjoys these things called “breaks” and thus forces Fitz to take them too, and Hunter, Izzy and Idaho join them on missions. Now, he wouldn’t have a problem with this, however, the moment he sees Hunter he realises that this is Jemma’s Lance and god isn’t he pretty. Well, Fitz thinks, at least they’ll have beautiful babies together, and beautiful British babies at that. 

But it gets worse, because now, not only does he have feelings for Jemma, but he has a huge crush on one of her soulmates. Right, no big deal, he just has to focus on the mission, not Hunter’s freely given, beautiful smile, nor his kind eyes or his caring heart. Fuck! So, Fitz does what any other regular descendant of Cupid would do, he represses his feelings, squashing them into a tiny box, thrown into a deep dark pit never to be seen again. Yes his methods may be a tad melodramatic, but he’s here for matchmaking not relationship destroying. 

And finally, after many long months of teaming up with Skye and Trip, and essentially barricading May and Coulson into a storage cupboard so that they talk about their feelings for one another, his attempts at matchmaking finally pay off. Admittedly he certainly didn’t need to see his pseudo-parental figures making out but if that’s what it takes, Fitz is happy to bear that mental scar.

For once, everything seems to be okay with the world, he could tell that soon enough, Skye would meet her soulmate, he’d “accidentally” managed to get a few of his lab techs together with their soulmates, completely unintentionally of course, and he was getting better at not blushing every time Hunter walked into the room. Then, of course, because nothing in Fitz’s life ever did run smooth, Jemma comes back with a bang, because here is Bobbi Morse in the flesh and Fitz is mature enough to admit that had he not already had an speech impediment, he’d have been stuttering like a goodun’ around her. Because not only is she absolutely gorgeous - although he’d thought she was blonde - but she is strong and patient and selfless enough to protect Jemma, despite their covers being blown. 

And Christ, there it is, the final nail in Fitz’s coffin, he has now managed to fall for both his best friend and her soulmates. Thankfully, before he manages to make a right cock of himself, Coulson begins debriefing the team, Jemma failing to remove herself from Bobbi’s orbit, and wow, she truly is smitten, that certainly makes his life ten times easier. 

Now, most people would choose to sit down and come to terms with their feelings, but not Fitz. As the self-titled king of emotional repression, he instead throws himself into his work (both official and unofficial), coincidentally leaving the lab so the three soulmates could get to know one another properly, Bobbi and Jemma bonding over their times at Hydra as well as their love for biology, Jemma and Hunter getting to know one another, often using anecdotal references to being English, and Bobbi and Hunter healing from their past traumas (with a lot of head bashing against a brick wall on Fitz’s part).

But, as a solid unit, they make it through, and they start dating, properly dating one another and Fitz is so proud of them, even if he does feel his heart break a little every time he has to keep himself away. It needn’t matter though, because Skye’s discovery of her powers is more than enough to force his focus onto something new. She’d helped him throughout his long recovery, had watched Doctor Who and Torchwood with him when he felt miserable, and now that he could repay her the favour, no one could stop him.

So he held her tightly as she sobbed, protected her from the watchful eye of the ATCU, and helped her train, making her gauntlets to help her harness her power when it threatened to harm her. However, soon enough, the time came for her to leave SHIELD and go to the Afterlife, where she could finally meet the man who would be the one for her. He packs her bag for her, hiding a packet of Percy Pigs that she loved so much in the bottom with a letter and a team photo, and hands it off to her as she gets ready to leave. With one final, very teary hug, she bids them farewell and leaves the Playground, refusing to turn back in case she never leaves.

\-----

It seems that in their lives as SHIELD agents, things never could run smoothly. After Daisy is nearly killed by her mum, Bobbi is tortured by Ward and Jemma is taken away by a monolith which seems to be a portal of some description, Fitz can well and truly say that he needs a break. With Bobbi incapacitated, Hunter ready to enact murder, and Daisy traumatised at the loss of her birth parents, it’s left to Fitz and Fitz alone to pick up the pieces. 

He spends his days with Bobbi, helping her with rehab, getting to truly know the older woman, falling for her sharp wit and stubbornness, and letting Hunter hover around them whilst he tries to process his losses. His nights are often spent with him tirelessly researching the monolith, often consoling Daisy when Lincoln doesn’t quite know what to do, the Inhuman never trying to separate them much to Daisy’s relief. So, long story short, it has been six months of Fitz working on very limited sleep and being pulled in what must be five hundred different directions.

The problem is, no one actually knows that he has carried on the research, after the first month where he’d been insistent that Jemma was still alive - he knew she was because he could see her bloody string still attached to Hunter and Bobbi’s wrists, fading by the minute - Fitz had been yelled at by Bobbi who demanded he move on because Jemma couldn’t still be alive. And it’s not exactly like Fitz could tell them the truth, his nan had been in a psychiatric ward for years because she’d told the wrong people about her gift, so he simply promised that he would stop, and got better at hiding the growing bags under his eyes. 

It all comes to a head when Fitz is sent to collect Daisy for dinner, and he finds her training her powers, seemingly adjusting the frequencies she’s using to move certain objects, and it’s like a firework has just exploded in his mind. He barely waits for her to realise that he’s there before sprinting off to his lab, shouting back at Daisy for her to tell the others he’d be back soon. Weaving his way through the various agents milling around the Playground, he banishes all of the lab techs and pulls up footage from the monolith room and the training room on the day that Jemma disappeared.

Fitz watches as the time codes align with one another, and suddenly the moment Daisy focuses her powers to match a certain frequency, the monolith liquifies, absorbing Jemma and spitting out a sand deposit which he’d tested months ago. This is it, the proof he needed to show everyone that Jemma was still alive. Speeding out of the lab, he rushes to the common room armed with a laptop and a mad scientist look he hadn’t worn since before the reveal of Hydra. He crashes into the room, garnering the attention of his team, all of whom look more than a tad bit concerned at his behaviour.

“I can get her back.” He states, and before anyone can even think to react, he plays the CCTV footage on his laptop, the team crowded around as they see the exact moment it all changes.

Fitz watches as Lincoln holds Daisy tight, insisting that it isn’t her fault, a sentiment which is echoed by the entire team. Had the door not been left unlocked in the first place, it wouldn’t have gotten out anyway, nor would it have been able to take Jemma to another world. But then the team looks at him as if he is absolutely mad for suggesting going alone, and immediately begins to yell at him for even suggesting such a thing.

“Look.” Fitz states whilst holding his hand up to silence the team. “I am going, and I’m going alone. I need you guys here to hold open the portal for as long as possible, and if I don’t make it back in time then you guys need to stay here until you can reopen it. Jemma would kill me if I let her partners get hurt, and I know she’d do the same for me so please, just go with it.”

Despite the begrudging looks shared amongst his team members, they eventually agree to do as he asked. The meal itself is like the Last Supper, the reluctance to let him go through with this clear on everyone’s faces, but he can’t help but notice the hopeful relief on Hunter and Bobbi’s as they allow themselves to hope that their girlfriend (and soulmate) is still alive. As the meal slowly draws to a close, Fitz is the first to get out of his seat, leaving the stiflingly silent room to organise the rescue efforts. While he couldn’t bring any medical supplies with him, he could bring some food and some water, god only knows what she’ll have had to eat during her time on the planet. 

After coordinating with the medical team so that they would be on high alert, Fitz packs the resources into his bag, along with a hoodie for Jemma and some weapons, it’s better to be safe than sorry after all. Minutes later, Fitz arrives in the monolith room and is thrown into a hug by Daisy, the Inhuman woman squeezing so tightly he feels as though his ribs will break. He grips her back just as tightly, whispering reassurances in her ear as she begs him not to do this.

After Daisy pulls away, he forces a smile and turns to the rest of the team, practically begging them to stay back. As he looks around at the team he loves so much, he turns to Hunter and Bobbi, Bobbi clinging tightly to Hunter’s arm, and smiles at them a final time, before telling Daisy to start. The moment the portal opens, Fitz jumps in, finding himself lighter on his feet due to the much weaker gravitational field of this planet. He calls out to Jemma, screaming her name from the top of his lungs as he follows the most worn out path he can find amongst the dust. Soon enough, he hears her call back and it must be his favourite sound in the world, and Fitz can’t run fast enough to get to her, finally seeing her worn out frame making itself known in the distance.

He beckons her to him, feeling the rope grow tenser as he gets further away from the portal, and he can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when he finally reaches her, clinging onto her waist as he pulls her back with him. While Fitz would have loved to walk alongside her, one look at the way she is swaying beside him lets him know that he has to carry her back, and so he swings her into a bridal carry, drapes the hoodie over her, and sprints back to the portal, the rope loosening as they return back to their point of origin. When Fitz jumps through the portal, he can do little more than cling onto Jemma with all his might, his best friend begging him to not let her go. 

Coming back through the portal is a much more bizarre experience, and Fitz doesn’t hesitate to hand Jemma over to the medical team Coulson has on standby, watching wistfully as her partners rush over to comfort her, the relief evident on their faces as they take a hold of her hands, and not for the last time does Fitz wish he could be their soulmate too. Forcing himself to look away, he instead heads over to Daisy, pulling her into the tightest hug possible as she practically sinks into him out of exhaustion. When she does drift off to sleep, he passes her over to Lincoln, letting the Inhuman carry his soulmate back to their room and leaving Fitz alone once more. 

He’s not ashamed to admit that he checks up on the triad through the strings, checking repeatedly to make sure that they’re okay as can be, and even after seeing the heart breaking glimpses of what’s going on, he keeps an eye on them, not sure of how to carry on after all of this. For the past six months his life has orbited around his friends and nothing else, and while Fitz is glad to see Jemma home, safe and sound, he can’t help but miss having a purpose that wasn’t just lab work to keep him occupied. Unable to stay still for any longer, Fitz makes his way to the communal kitchen, getting some drinks and snacks ready for the spies who will undoubtedly be at Jemma’s bedside for the foreseeable future.

Laden down with an obscene amount of snacks and bottles of water, Fitz follows Bobbi’s string through the maze of the Playground, ignoring the incredulous looks from the agents milling about, clearly eager to find out all they can about what happened to Simmons. Stopping outside of her room in the medical bay, Fitz takes a deep breath before gently knocking on the door, introducing himself as he opens the door with his elbow just in case Jemma gets spooked. 

The scene that welcomes him is one that warns his heart, one of them had commandeered another bed from the medical ward (although Fitz wouldn’t like to guess who) and the three of them are curled up with one another, Bobbi and Hunter still holding Jemma’s hands even fast asleep. Placing the food and drink on a nearby table, he drapes a blanket over the three lovers, smiling down at them before making a speedy retreat out of the room, not noticing the smile blooming on Hunter’s face at the care which Fitz gives them freely.

\-----

If anyone were to ask him, Fitz was most certainly not avoiding the triad, rather he was enabling them to heal from their traumas together - at least that was the excuse he’d given Daisy, Mack and Lincoln when they’d asked. Besides, it’s not like he has much free time at the moment, what with Jemma still recovering and Bobbi and Hunter being the most heavily involved with the rehabilitation process, it has meant that Fitz is often pulling double shifts in the lab and in the field, not that he lets anyone else onto it. Realistically it’s only a matter of time before Fitz’s coping habits wind him up in the medical bay, most likely in the room next to Jemma’s, but until such a day, he is going to work himself to the bone and avoid those he loves the most. 

Bobbi and Hunter in particular are nothing if not persistent, but with the added benefit of being able to see people’s strings (and knowing theirs like the back of his hand) Fitz has been able to make his getaway every single time they attempt to catch him out. It eventually comes to a head when the triad and himself are put in the field together, Jemma’s first ever mission since her return from Maveth, and Fitz has nowhere to hide. In theory, it’s supposed to be an easy mission, but when you consider the mounting tension between the four, not to mention Fitz’s refusal to answer their questions, the so-called easy mission becomes at least a hundred times harder.

Initially, it was supposed to be Hunter and Bobbi making contact with a former Watchdog officer, with Fitz and Jemma staying in the van and running ops. But when Fitz notices the two specialists’ strings flicker in and out of consciousness, he doesn’t hesitate to jump out of the van completely unprompted, locking Jemma inside to keep her safe. Armed with an ICER and the minimal knowledge he has of his powers, Fitz speeds into the high end restaurant, ignoring every protest shouted out to him as he tracks the older agents, his mind focused on one thing and one thing only, saving Jemma’s soulmates. Kicking the door in, Fitz ices all of the officer’s men with a marksman’s precision before storming up to the Watchdog and pinning him against the wall.

“The fuck have you done to them?” He demands, fury coursing through his body as he sees Bobbi and Hunter slumped over in their chairs.

“This isn’t possible.” The officer raggedly gasps out. “You’re not on the list of freaks in SHIELD.”

At this remark, Fitz’s grasp tightens on the man’s throat, silently daring him to come out with something else along that vein of thinking. As the oxygen in his lungs lessens every second, he spits out the name of an edible dendrotoxin which had been hidden in the soup the pair had consumed when they sat down. Dropping the man to the floor, Fitz shoots him with an ICER before turning his attention to Bobbi and Hunter, the pair of them almost completely conscious. Weighing up his options, knowing he’ll have to deal with an infuriated Jemma not to mention curious Hunter and Bobbi, Fitz calls Coulson and May for back up with dealing with the multiple unconscious Watchdogs lying on the restaurant floor, informing the team of the still drugged Bobbi and Hunter.

As soon as the team arrives, Fitz sprints back out to the van, unlocking the doors to come face to face with an irate Jemma Simmons who looks like she’s seconds from clawing his eyes out, possibly with her nails, probably with her bone knife. Not giving her a chance to start yelling at him, he leads her away from the van and towards her partners, who are looking far better than they did when he’d first found them. While Jemma fusses over her soulmates, Fitz debriefs Coulson and May over how the mission had played out, why he’d left his post, and watches as the triad talk to one another in hushed tones at the other end of the room.

Deciding to bite the bullet, he walks over to the soulmates, trying to keep his face neutral despite the dread that wants to make an appearance. It feels almost like a death march of sorts, and the moment Jemma’s glare focuses on him once more, Fitz is just hoping all of his legal affairs are in order after all. He doesn’t miss how when Hunter grabs Jemma’s hand, the fight seeps out of her body, and she more resembles an angry kitten than an angry spy. 

“I’m sorry Jemma. I promise you, all of you, I’ll explain when we get back to the base.” Fitz says, breathing a sigh of relief when all three of them agree to talk with him, and Fitz offers up using his room, knowing it would be clean due to how little time he’s spent in it recently.

The ride back on the Zephyr is less awkward than he’d have thought it would be, what with his matchmaking attempts having found a new victim on their team. He honestly thought it was laughable that Mack thought he was successfully hiding his attraction to the Columbian agent they’d encountered, and Fitz had overheard her talk to one of the other Spanish speaking agents about how she thought he was handsome among other things. Fitz enjoys the flight back to base, spending most of it reassuring Mack that he should in fact ask Elena out, and to make an effort with picking up on Spanish so they don’t need a translator for their date.

When Coulson dismisses the team, asking Daisy to look over the security tapes obtained at the scene, Fitz heads straight to his bunk, confident that if none of them remembered the way back to his room that they’d be following him already. Unlocking his door for what must be the first time in a week, Fitz is overpowered with the scent of dust and staleness, and he rushes to open a window before any of the others catch onto how little he uses it. Unluckily, when working with three spies who are all trained to be observant, this fact doesn't go amiss, if the disapproving look from Jemma is anything to go off of. He lets them take a seat, Jemma clearly surprised about the well made bed - after knowing him for over a decade, she knows that Fitz only ever made his bed when his mum was coming to visit or if he’d just done the washing.

“When was the last time you slept in here Fitz?” Jemma asks, unable to maintain the angry tone she’d intended on using.

“Uh, I dunno Jem, maybe a few weeks back.” 

If the simultaneous gasps from the soulmates are anything to go off of, Fitz definitely needs to take a nap so he regains his brain to mouth filter.

“It’s okay, I usually take a kip in the break room between shifts, it’s fine.”

Well, that response goes down like a lead balloon, and if looks could kill, Fitz would be eighteen feet down at minimum. 

“What do you mean between shifts Fitz?” Hunter asks, gravitating towards the younger scientist.

“Well after we rescued Jemma, I realised that you guys wouldn’t have an awful lot of time to take on shifts in the lab or in the field, and it’s not like SHIELD can survive its best scientists and field agents out of commission so I just took on some extra shifts so you guys would have more time together. Look, you can either sit here and interrogate me about my sleeping habits or you can ask me about what happened on the mission, one or the other not both.” 

“Okay, first question, why did you lock me in the van?” Jemma asks, frowning at her friend.

“Because I could tell that Bobbi and Hunter needed help and I knew that if I had asked you to stay put without any explanation, you would’ve followed me out and risked their safety as well as your own.”

“Alright following on from that, how the hell did you do all of that in there? You had him pinned against the wall two feet off of the ground, not even Mack could do something like that, let alone you, ow, no offence.” Hunter tacks on when Bobbi elbows him in the ribs for his regular lack of tact.

Knowing that he has no other choice, Fitz retells the stories his nan had taught him all of those years ago, of Greek mythology and impossible powers, and how it had shaped his life. He explains why he’d hidden his powers for all those years, the fear of being sectioned like his nan had been despite the fact she was completely mentally competent. By the end of the story, he feels like a weight has been lifted off of his chest, and although he knows the chances of ending up with the triad is slim to none, he feels closer to them than he had anyone else in the world. The room is left totally silent by the time he finishes his explanation, and as the silence prevails he feels increasingly paranoid as they refrain from saying anything to him.

“That’s why you told me to find Bobbi and Hunter isn’t it? At the bottom of the ocean. It’s because you knew they were my soulmates and you wanted me to have a reason for living instead of giving you the oxygen.”

Fitz nods his head, dropping it so he doesn’t see any of their anger, or hurt, or heaven forbid disappointment. 

“That doesn’t explain why you’ve been avoiding us love, I know we might have come on a bit too strong but-”

“I’m sorry, you what?” He butts in, looking at Hunter with as much confusion as he can muster on his face.

“Fitz, were you aware, in the slightest, that we’ve been trying to get you to go out with us?” Bobbi asks, her calm facade soon morphing into concern when Fitz shakes his head vehemently.

“But, but, but I’m not your soulmate. You three are soulmates, I’m not supposed to…”

“Look you said it yourself, you can’t see your own string, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be someone’s soulmate. So what if, you’re our soulmate but you don’t know it, and then because you can’t see it, you’re leaving us without a person we’re destined to be with.”

Sitting quietly on the edge of his bed Fitz tries to process everything, never in his wildest dreams had he thought that he would have a chance with any of the triad, let alone all of them. It’s a scary thing to fathom, allowing that vulnerability with these people, who he has so much to make up for, but would it be worth it? Fitz wants to think so.

“Okay. Okay. If you guys are willing to accept my multiple oncoming apologies then I’d be more than happy to see where this goes.”

It takes Jemma mere seconds to launch herself at him, alternating between berating his stupidity and reassuring him that she loves him. He holds onto Jemma’s waist as she settles on his lap, watching as she smiles sweetly at him before placing her hands on his cheeks and pulling him in for a soft kiss. She tastes like tea and sunrise, and it’s everything he’d imagined it would be and more. When she pulls back from him, Fitz gently ticks a piece of hair behind her ear, beaming when he hears her melodic giggle.

In the blink of an eye, Fitz finds his lap now full of one Bobbi Morse, the specialist smiling down at him through her long blonde hair. Before he has the chance to say anything, Bobbi’s lips crash onto his, her hands tangled in his unruly curls, the kiss overwhelming and all consuming. When she pulls away for breath, Fitz hears himself whimper at the loss of contact, and going by the grin on her face, she hears it too.

When Bobbi slides off of his lap, giving Fitz a cheeky wink, he’d half expected Hunter to climb into his lap as well, so when he finds himself being lifted by the ex-mercenary and being gently placed on his thighs, Fitz can’t help but let out a high pitched squeak. Settling down in a more comfortable position, bracketing Hunter’s legs with his own thighs, Fitz takes the chance to properly look at the older Brit, chuckling when he sees the faintest blush rising on Hunter’s cheeks. Spurred on by this, Fitz tilts his head down slightly to kiss Hunter, the older man resting his arms around Fitz’s neck, the softness of the kiss belying Hunter’s rough exterior. 

Pulling away, Fitz lets out a giant yawn that earns him an unimpressed look from Jemma, who insists they all take a nap after the day they’ve had. They curl around one another on Fitz’s queen sized bed - those double shifts had been good for one thing, and that was the money he got off of them - and soon enough all fall asleep on top of one another, warm through and through.

Fitz doesn’t know what he had been expecting to dream, maybe the four of them on dates, in bed, maybe even getting married, but he certainly hadn’t anticipated seeing his nan, smiling at him from her comfy chair. Without hesitation he sprints over to her, pulling her into a hug that feels like coming home all over again, and it’s not until he pulls away from her that he realises he’s crying. Tutting at him, she wipes away the tears trickling down his face, pressing a kiss to his cheek and not-so-subtly wiping away the tears misting up her eyes.

“I have t’ say, my wee Lion, you really dinnae do things by halves do ya?”

“How do you mean Nan?”

“The fact you’ve go’ three soulmates, love.” She says in a way that’s so matter of fact that Fitz can’t find any room for disagreement.

“You mean?” The hopefulness in his tone makes her beam at him unrepentantly, so pleased that her grandson had found his happiness after all these years.

“Tha’s wha’ I said. Go and be happy wi’ them το μικρό μου λιοντάρι, I’ll be sure t’ meet them one day, up here, but not too soon, y’ hear me?”

“Yes Nan, I love you, I miss you so much.”

Feeling the dream fading away from him, Fitz pulls her into one last final hug, squeezing tighter than before as he tries to commit her to memory once more. Waking up with a gasp, he’s relieved to feel the heat emanating from the bodies around him, reassuring him that it hadn’t all been a dream after all. Just as he drifts back to sleep, the faintest red thread becomes visible to him, tangled in the strings shielding him from the world around them.

**Author's Note:**

> 'το μικρό μου λιοντάρι' should hopefully mean 'my little lamb' in Greek, but I used google translate so take that with a pinch of salt!
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you thought & come find me on [ Tumblr](https://acetoshikosato.tumblr.com/)! Thanks for reading!!
> 
> Jae <3


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